LA Hospital Dumping People on Skid Row

It turns out there is now some evidence in the practice that many people have been suspecting for quite some time. On Monday LA Voice linked to this LA Times story stating that LAPD officials had photographed and videotaped ambulances from Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center allegedly dumping five people on skid row over the weekend and were calling it a major break. Since then both NPR and CNN have jumped on the story. What’s worse is that of the 5 cases from this weekend, at least one of them was not even homeless and other reported they did not want to be taken to Skid Row. From CNN:

In one case, a man dropped off at Skid Row was in fact not homeless, said Smith, the LAPD captain. A police officer took him home and the man’s family was “outraged,” he said.

“Not only did they not know that he was discharged, but the fact that he had been brought to Skid Row instead of being brought home was what further outraged that family,” Smith said at a news conference Tuesday.

The investigation began on Sunday, when an LAPD sergeant saw a patient being left in front of the Volunteers of America homeless services facility.

The sergeant called an LAPD videographer, who over the next few hours recorded four more ambulances arriving at the facility and leaving recently discharged patients.

Fenton said three of the five patients had arrived at the hospital from Volunteers of America or the nearby Lamp Community center, and gave the street addresses on their admission information.

Officials at Lamp and Volunteers of America, however, said they had no record of any of the five patients having been at their facilities. Police also said the patients stated in their interviews that they didn’t want to be left there.

This isn’t news that hasn’t surfaced before. Los Angeles’ civvil services have long been doing this as the city is ill equiped to deal with the homeless. There was a story some months ago about hospitals paying cabs to drop patients off at or near shelters.

This isn’t news that hasn’t surfaced before. Los Angeles’ civvil services have long been doing this as the city is ill equiped to deal with the homeless. There was a story some months ago about hospitals paying cabs to drop patients off at or near shelters.